The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE), and its prototype CUORICINO are neutrinoless double beta decay experiments located at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. My work on CUORE has included the following roles:

I fell in love with the iOS game Letterpress, and wanted to make a physical version to play in person with friends and family.

The set consists of dyed wooden alphabet tiles, a laser cut board and racks, and laser cut acrylic blocked tile markers. The Rhino CAD model can be found on github, and full instructions are available on instructables.

Transect Cascade is a sinewy volume of scattered intersecting black surfaces, frozen in time, held unnaturally in space by a grid of stainless steel aircraft cable. A single, contrasting shape is transected through this volume, revealing itself fully only when the piece is viewed from a specific angle. Cutting edge CAD and digital fabrication techniques allow for complexity to emerge from simple shapes, movement and grace to reveal themselves in the chaos, computational ideals manifest in tangible reality.

For this project, I helped devise the hanging and assembly strategy and assisted with programming, fabrication, installation, and general problem-solving.

Tympani Lambada is a sculpture by the Flaming Lotus Girls inspired by the anatomy of the inner ear. The three soaring arches represent the vestibular system, which controls balance, and the spiraling methanol fountain represents the cochlea, which is responsible for the perception of pitch. The sculpture incorporates sound, sequenced LED lighting, and of course the FLG's signature flame effects.

My main contribution to this project was developing a strategy for translating the CAD model of the arches into a physical reality. At times I may also have been spotted troubleshooting, wire-running, wrench-wielding, and loose-end tying.

Note: An interactive version of the pattern generator can be found here. Enjoy!

I became interested in the idea of generative knitting when I learned the "mosaic" technique of two-color knitting. Not all two-color patterns are knittable using this technique, so I implemented an algorithm to automatically generate patterns that satisfy the constraints of mosaic knitting.

Each object in this visualization is a pulsar. Pulsars are neutron
stars -- the ultra-dense remnants of collapsed stars. Neutron stars
typically have a mass greater than our sun, but a radius of only about
10 miles! Like a figure-skater pulling in her arms to spin faster, a
slowly rotating star can end up spinning very fast after it collapses
into a neutron star (up to hundreds of times per second!). A neutron
star may emit a beam of intense radiation which points in different
directions as it spins. From earth, it looks like the star is
blinking on and off as the beam is pointed toward and away from us.
This called a pulsar.

The objects in the visualization correspond to observed pulsars from
the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue. Each pulsar
appears at its observed coordinates in the galactic plane and is
blinking at its observed frequency. The color is based on the
frequency of radio waves emitted by the pulsar: redder points emit
more low-frequency radio waves, while bluer points emit more
high-frequency radio waves.

A clock appears in the top right corner of the screen and is ticking
at a rate of once per second in the time-frame of the visualization.

"Syzygryd is a town square for the collaborative creation of music. It’s a public space, it’s a sculpture, and it’s a professional musical instrument. It’s the most beautiful expression we can imagine of the joy we take in community, music, technology, fire, sculpture and architecture.

Three large custom hardware grid sequencers. Each controls a single instrument and they share a clock, so they’re all synchronized. By controlling time, pitch, and harmony, these devices make it easy for people with no musical training or talent to create melodious compositions.

The consoles are arranged at three equidistant points around a 60′ diameter circle, far enough apart that the participants can see one another but can’t communicate verbally. Each console reflects the state of the others. Three people collaboratively create a continuously evolving piece of music without communicating, except through the music itself.

The center of the circle is a huge metal tornado of cubes, pulsing with synchronized sound, light, and fire."

My roles on this project:

Co-leader of fire team

Flame effect R&amp;D

Design, fabrication, installation and safe operation of flame effects and control systems

Build Your Own Radio Workshoptag:laurakogler.net,2018:/other/EYH/2011-04-30T15:33:46+10:00@page_description

Working with the UC Berkeley Society of Women in the Physical Sciences (SWPS), I organized and volunteered at a workshop for the Expanding your Horizons conference at Mills College.

The goal of our "Build your own radio" workshop was to introduce participants to basic concepts of electronics and the electromagnetic spectrum through a fun, hands-on project. We helped each student build a working AM radio out of nothing more than a resistor, diode, earpiece, alligator clip, hookup wire, and a cardboard tube.

Photos courtesy of Amanda Velázquez.

Angel of the Apocalypsetag:laurakogler.net,2018:/other/Angel/2011-05-03T12:37:20+10:00@page_description

Angel of the Apocalypse is a sculpture by the Flaming Lotus Girls. In late 2009, the body of the piece was rebuilt in steel for the 2010 Toronto Winter City festival. I assisted with metalwork and fabrication for this project.

Soma is a sculpture by the Flaming Lotus Girls which translates the anatomy of a neuron to a monumental scale. This interactive sculpture is brought to life by LED lighting and flame effects which represent the communication between neurons and larger patterns that emerge from those communications.